Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Marks, Susan
Area of Concentration
Humanities
Abstract
This thesis reinterprets Susanna’s representation through her earliest extant textual, visual, and typological appearances in hopes of finding tangible instances which led to her eroticization. Little evidence exists for the representation of early Christian and biblical women. The sources concerning these women are largely secondary, therefore reinterpretation relies on an interdisciplinary approach. This thesis focuses on Susanna from the Book of Daniel. For Susanna, scholarship notes a shift from her empowering appearance in early Christianity to her eroticization in the late medieval and Renaissance Eras. Susanna was a symbol of chastity, virtue, and salvation before oversimplification of her story depicted a nude and shameful Susanna in her bathing scene. For Susanna to transition from an empowering model to an object of seeing carries a message about the value and role of biblical women. This thesis offers Susanna’s earliest text(s) to show Susanna to set a literal foundation for her representation. Next, I analyze Susanna’s appearance in the Roman Catacombs and sarcophagi from late antiquity before my final chapter on typology in which I integrate both textual and visual material to categorize Susanna in to biblical “types,” or categories she commonly fell under. These methods highlight the value of interdisciplinary approaches to this topic. Using these methods to present a well-rounded reinterpretation of Susanna, I argue that her eroticization was a later development and that Susanna was not an erotic figure prior to her appearance(s) in late medieval and Renaissance artwork.
Recommended Citation
Baron, Chloe, "STRIPPED OF MEANING: REVISITING SUSANNA’S EROTICIZATION" (2019). Theses & ETDs. 5646.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5646